


Mission Moving On

by Nifflersfancy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: ??? - Freeform, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Brief wolfstar, F/M, Humour, Just a sad James, M/M, Marauders era, Not really though, Pining, Sleepy James, hopefully, like one line, maybe? - Freeform, not really - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-10-12 20:57:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17474876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nifflersfancy/pseuds/Nifflersfancy
Summary: Feeling like he is getting nowhere, James decides to move on from Lily. Lily has other ideas.[I promise it's better than it sounds.]





	Mission Moving On

“Prongs, you’ve been pining for this girl for Merlin knows how many years and now you’re just going to give up?” Sirius Black hissed to his best friend and the current cause of his frustrations, James Potter, who was looking far too calm right now.

“What else can I do? I can’t force her to love me, can I? Shall I tie her up and drag her along to Hogsmeade with me?” The boy in question scoffed as he shoved some runaway jumpers into his trunk with a little bit more force than necessary. “Maybe we should skip Hogsmeade. Let’s bind her, gag her and force her down the aisle.”

“Hey, if that’s what you’re into, who am I to judge?” Sirius practically purred, causing James to roll his eyes at the other lad, roughly pushing his glasses further up onto his nose, wincing slightly as it made the bridge of his nose ache. “Okay, maybe that isn’t the solution. But you can’t just stop now! You’re wearing her down now, I can feel it!” Sirius attempted to encourage, hating to see his friend so sulky. Despite how much of a drama queen James could be, it was rare that he looked so much like a kicked puppy.

“I shouldn’t have to weigh her down! If she wanted to be with me then she would but clearly, she doesn’t so that’s that. Just leave it alone, Pads.” James said sternly. Seeing as James rarely used that tone with anyone, especially Sirius, he decided to drop it and the two of them finished packing their trunks and headed down to the Common Room to meet the others.

After that, they headed to the Great Hall for breakfast before they were to go home for Christmas Break. James told the other two marauders about his plan to give up with the gorgeous redhead, who seemed to be seated as far away as possible, and received similar reactions. But over the meal and the Christmas holidays, the other marauders seemed to adjust to the idea, even if it was just for James’ sake. But when they got the platform at the end of the holidays and James merely flashed Lily a smile in passing, instead of hounding her with his usual questions and chat up lines, they began to question whether they should have doubted James so much.

“I think it’s very mature of you, James.” Remus confessed whilst they were still on the train a while later when Sirius was done obsessing over it and making sly digs. Remus was sat beside James, and opposite from Sirius, who had his feet thrown onto Peter’s lap. James had a snitch, which he had stolen from Hogwarts, in his hand and was releasing it, allowing it to flutter around the room before he would quickly reach out and grab it. Peter was staring out the compartment door, no doubt looking out for a Hufflepuff in the year above them that he was currently obsessed with, whilst Sirius was doodling in a notebook with a muggle pen that he had, no doubt, gotten for Christmas. “Lily’s a wonderful girl.”

“I know she is, Moony.” James pointed out, having to hold his tongue in order to refrain from saying something sarcastic about how it was obvious that he was aware of how wonderful Lily was, seeing as he had been obsessed with her for years. Especially not after Remus had just called him mature. “I’d rather have her as a friend than not at all. I just hope that she’ll have me for a friend.” He sighed, running his fingers through his messy locks.

“Oh, she’d be mad not to! Who can resist that handsome face?” Sirius cooed, pinching James’ cheeks, causing them to redden slightly at the tugging. He seemed unfazed and continued to make baby cooing noises even after James slapped his hand away and rolled his eyes. “And if she doesn’t, fuck her. Plenty of fish in the sea, as the muggles say.” Sirius said proudly, clearly pleased with the most recent muggle phrase that he had learnt over Christmas in an attempt to impress Remus, who was too busy frowning at Sirius’ foul language, although clearly doing his best to not scold his friend.

“We’ll see.” James said simply, his eyes now glued to the window, where Lily was now stood outside, talking to another prefect. A moment later, she turned and scanned the compartment, sending a grin and a friendly wave to Remus before she walked back to her own compartment. James released a long sigh and felt Remus pat him on the shoulder. This would be difficult.

———————————————————————————————————

The overwhelming cold was beginning to get to James. The Gryffindor loved Quidditch, that was no secret. But he absolutely hated the cold weather. The Quidditch game after the Christmas holidays was Gryffindor against Ravenclaw and it was a real nail-biter. Both teams had been practising as often as they could and there had been several fights over Quidditch timetables and they had even resorted to bribing the other teams into letting them take their practise slots. But despite the fact that it was now coming up to Spring, it was pouring it down with rain. Typical Scottish weather.

It had been almost three months since they had come back from the Christmas break and so far Mission Moving On, as Sirius had nicknamed it, was going swimmingly. Or at least, it appeared to be going swimmingly but James was struggling. For example, Lily had gotten a haircut a few days ago, no doubt from one of the girls in her dorm, and whilst it wasn’t much shorter, it seemed that Lily could now do more with it as her hair looked different every day - curled, straightened and in different undoes. James envied whoever she was doing it for but wanted nothing more than to tell her how wonderful she looked. He couldn’t though. Things were going so well between them. She had even started speaking to him now. It was never much but it was a start. But she was clearly putting all of this effort in for someone and James wished her the best. He just wanted her to be happy, even if out wasn’t with him.

Practise soon ended and James made his way straight back to the castle, giving his brow to one of his teammates to put away for him. James planned on going to their dorm, having a shower and then curling up in the common room with the other marauders. He was absolutely freezing and would definitely benefit from sitting in front of the fireplace for a few hours.

Upon entering the common room, he nodded towards Sirius, who had clearly been watching the door waiting for him, and who also appeared to have saved him a seat beside him. But he also noticed that Sirius appeared to be smirking at him but James ignored it, far too tired to worry about what trouble Sirius had gotten into whilst he had been gone.

He briefly spoke to a few people as he walked through the common room, but everyone could see from his soaked, shivering and tired appearance that he wasn’t in the mood to chat. After his shower, James got dressed into a pair of soft flannel trousers that were primarily red and grey as well as a grey jumper. His hair was still slightly damp but thankfully clean as he made his way down to the common room again. He went straight over to the sofa and flopped tiredly next to Sirius with a groan, resting his head on his best friend’s shoulder.

“Long day at the office, honey?” Sirius questioned teasingly, gently running his fingers through James’ hair, smirking as his friend let out a content hum. “Here’s something that will cheer you up.” Before James could ask after what was going to cheer him up, he felt a small hand resting on his forehead, checking his temperature and appearing satisfied with the results as they moved their hand away again.

“Cute jammies, James.” James opened his eyes, unaware that he had even closed them and blinked owlishly up at Lily Evans, who was grinning softly and fondly down at him. She let out a tinkling laugh as James merely stared at her, clearly clueless of how to react.

“Evans! Just the gal I was looking for! Save my seat for me? I need to do something real quick.” He said and although James could hear the smirk in his voice, it was quickly forgotten as Lily bit her lip, appearing to be holding back laughter as she nodded her head. Her hair was slightly curled at the bottoms and seemed to move as she did and James had to bite his tongue to stop himself from telling her how gorgeous she looked. He soon realised what had been said and looked up at Sirius.

“It can’t wait? I was comfortable.” He whined childishly, his cheeks flushing slightly as he heard Lily laugh again, a light laugh that was full of happiness and rainbows. At least that’s how it seemed to James.

“It’ll only take two seconds and then you can get comfy again.” Lily’s soft voice said soothingly and James sighed softly but sat up straight so that Sirius could get up, attempting to get comfortable sat up. He felt the sofa dip slightly behind him and then a gentle hand on his shoulder that began to pull him back into them. He frowned, wondering what Sirius had done that had been so quickly but as he leaned back against him, he quickly sat back up again one he realised that it was Lily.

“Relax.” She murmured before he could apologise for leaning against her. Lily shifted again to make it more comfortable for them and leaned against the armrest, her legs now in front of James as she pulled the bespectacled boy to lay down and lean into her side. “It’s alright, James. You look tired, just get comfy.” She said sweetly and James had no chance of resisting when he felt her tiny hands go into his hair, gently beginning to card their way through the damp strands, her nails lightly grazing over his scalp. He had absolutely no choice as his body sagged against hers, relaxing completely as he let out a long sigh, all of the tension coming out of his body with it.

He could hear Lily giggling as she rested her head on his but he merely smiled, soft and sleepily.

It was a few hours later that James blinked his eyes open again and could hear a faint murmuring in the room and could feel fingers still gently carding through his hair. It took him a moment or two to realise the position that he was in and when he did, he could feel his heart beating so fast that he was sure Lily could as well. Lily was now laying on her back with James laying between her spread legs. His head was resting on her stomach, his right arm wrapped around her waist, his left hand limp but entwined with Lily’s as her free hand was moving gently through his hair. He was facing the back of the sofa and could hear the other marauders talking in hushed voices. He couldn’t hear exactly what they were talking about so he didn’t bother to get up and decided to just enjoy the position that he was in.

“Hey, sleepyhead.” Lily said softly, giving his hand a gentle squeeze a few minutes later as his friends began to talk amongst themselves. 

“Lily…” James mumbled sleepily, his morning voice deep and slightly scratchy as he looked up at her, realising that his glasses had been removed so he couldn’t see her properly but he didn’t mind. He was far too comfortable and relaxed to move. “Lily, ‘m sorry. Didn’t mean to fall asleep.” 

“It’s okay, you were tired. I would have gotten up if I wasn’t okay with it, silly.” She murmured, sounding more fond and affectionate than James had ever heard before. “But you know, I would usually make a guy take me out on a date before I let him do this.” She hinted, laughing as James only frowned in confusion at her. “And you seem to be completely oblivious to all of the hints that I’ve been throwing at you in the past two months or so, so I guess I’ll just have to take matters into my own hands, won’t I?” She only grinned as James appeared to be even more confused by her words. She released his hand and placed a finger on his lips as he went to talk. “How about Hogsmeade this weekend? I know that you have Quidditch practise Friday night as well so how about you meet me out by the fountain at 12 on Saturday? That way, you can have a bit of a lie in, huh? That sound okay?” She questioned, watching as James slowly nodded his head, clearly in shock. “Great! Well, I should get off to bed. You mind letting me up?” James did so, sitting up himself and still gaping slightly at her.

The others had stopped talking and were now watching the two of them with grins on their faces. They had been waiting for this for a long time. “Goodnight, James. Sweet dreams.” Lily murmured, leaning down and gently cupping one of James’ cheek, pressing her lips to the other in a lingering kiss before sending him a wink and skipping off to her dorm. James barely had a second to think before his friends began to cheer loudly and question him excitedly. He couldn’t stop grinning for weeks.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! It's one of my first one shots so please be gentle! Feel free to comment and whatever else it is you do on here! (I am clueless, someone help.) 
> 
> Requests are always open, follow me on Tumblr


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